This week as, I am building this new work to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I am also finding that I am standing in front of an invisible wall trying to get through my dancers. It’s challenging to try to create a work and try to go through the invisible wall that some of them have created: the wall of fear, the wall of disappointment, the wall of mistrust and the walls that are there, build from past experiences. As one Berliner said to me “the wall is still in our heads” but it also is in our bodies.  It’s a hard balance of trying to figure out how far I can push them before the wall breaks, before there is trust in themselves, in each other, in me and the work. It is a relationship that goes beyond creating the artwork. People are not like a blank canvas where you can splash color on them and create the work. The energies in the studio influence the outcome, the energies and minds of the collective influence the direction. Everybody brings their own memories, histories , experiences, fears, hopes, dreams that will be part of the fabric of the work. The wall needs to be chipped down piece by piece, so that the dancers soul come through and live in the work. So week three was crucial in trying to have them open up a little bit more, but there is still more work to do. In the last three weeks we have been working on a lot of physical contact, lifts and experiments of weight shifts. So this week dancer Ahmaud got inspired about Affectionate Relationship and is working on his relationship theory. This is what he wants to share this week.

Theory of Affectionate Relationship

Affectionate behavior is displaying physical,emotional, and verbal interpretation of ones own feelings. Physical affectionate behavior can range from anything to an tickle, pinch, kiss, hug, and anything your physical self can do to inflect on another to feel a cordial response.

Emotional affectionate behavior usually involuntarily creates a physical affectionate response. The one displaying these methods of affectionate behavior can reinforce a clarification of ones feelings with verbal communication.

In order to do this you must break down ones walls of insecurities. Creating the opportunity of a relationship.